YEAR IN REVIEW: Looking back at 2016 in Massachusetts

While a months-long drought left swaths of Massachusetts parched during much of 2016, a flood of important events and milestones cascaded through the Bay State throughout the year.

It was a year that saw Massachusetts say farewell to both manned tollbooths and retiring Red Sox star David Ortiz. An unforgettable presidential election dominated the nation’s focus, while voters in Massachusetts legalized marijuana and shot down a proposal to expand charter schools. All the while, opioid addiction continued to surge, leaving public health officials scrambling for solutions.

Elections and pot

More than a century after it became the first state to ban marijuana, Massachusetts became one of the newest to legalize the drug in 2016.

Overcoming opposition from much of the political establishment, voters approved a ballot question that made it legal for adults over age 21 to use, grow and possess limited quantities of marijuana for recreational purposes, effective Dec. 15. In the coming year, lawmakers and State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s office are expected to set the regulatory groundwork for retail pot stores, which could open in 2018.

The vote came a year after the first dispensary in the state’s fledgling medical marijuana industry opened in Salem.

The 2016 election marked the first time Massachusetts voters could cast their ballots in person early. Statewide, 23 percent of registered voters took advantage of early voting.

Although President-elect Donald Trump lost Massachusetts to Hillary Clinton by a wide margin, Massachusetts played a role in helping the billionaire secure the Republican nomination. In the GOP primary, Trump carried the Bay State, topping a slate of party rivals including Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

Gov. Charlie Baker refused to endorse Trump and chose not to cast a vote for president. In Wicked Local’s pre-election poll of all 40 Republican state lawmakers, only 10 responded and three publicly backed Trump.

Battling addiction

Opioid abuse continued to take a toll on Massachusetts in 2016, with preliminary public health data showing statewide overdose deaths were on pace to exceed the more than 1,500 from 2015.

Heroin continued to be a major street drug, but fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid, emerged as a leading contributor to overdose deaths. It is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and became increasingly common in 2016. By the third quarter of the year, fentanyl was detected in nearly three-quarters of fatal overdose victims who were tested, according to state data.

Massachusetts expanded new prescribing guidelines for prescription opioids, launched a new prescription monitoring database and expanded access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

New rights

Transgender residents of Massachusetts got an expanded set of legal protections in 2016, when the state passed a new anti-discrimination bill. The law guarantees public accommodation rights to transgender people. Under the law, which took effect in October, transgender people have the right to use public restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities, regardless of their sex at birth.

Transportation developments

Sitting in line at the tollbooth became a thing of the past on the Massachusetts Turnpike in 2016. The state has switched to an electronic tolling system. Drivers now drive under gantries that scan their EZ-Pass transponders or photograph their license plates to bill them by mail. Work to demolish the tollbooths began nearly immediately after electronic tolling went into effect in October.

The long-anticipated South Coast Rail plan, which would extend commuter rail service from Boston to New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton, took a major turn in 2016. After projected costs ballooned, state transportation officials reconsidered a route option that would build off of the existing Middleboro line. The plan has gotten a mixed reception among South Coast elected officials.

Business moves

General Electric announced in January that it was moving its headquarters to Boston, a deal that includes $145 million in city tax breaks and state grants. The new headquarters, a three-building campus in Boston’s Seaport District, is expected to be completed in 2018. In the meantime, the company’s headquarters are based in a temporary space in the city.

Work continued in 2016 on the Wynn Boston Harbor Casino in Everett and MGM Casino in Springfield, as the gambling establishments prepare for construction. In Taunton, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe broke ground on a planned tribal casino, only to be derailed by a federal lawsuit challenging the tribe’s ability to qualify for the sovereign land designation needed to establish a reservation. After a federal judge struck down the Department of the Interior’s decision to approve the tribe’s land application, the case is now heading to federal appeals court.

The natural world

People weren’t the only ones making news in Massachusetts this year.

Great white shark sightings spiked in Massachusetts during the summer of 2016, prompting temporary beach closings up and down Cape Cod. While shark attacks on humans are rare, there were some close encounters this year. In early October, shark researchers captured an aerial photograph of a massive great white swimming within feet of a stand-up paddle boarder off Nauset Beach.

Orcas, also known as killer whales, are not usually seen in New England waters, but the black-and-white marine mammals were spotted off the coast of Cape Cod in 2016.

Another unusual visitor, a manatee, also took a trip to the Massachusetts coast this summer. Scientists captured the wayward animal off Cape Cod in September and transported it back to its native Florida.

Throughout the summer and fall, a drought settled in over much of Massachusetts, prompting more than 100 communities to enact water use restrictions. As of December, the Quabbin Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to most of Greater Boston, was at 79 percent capacity.

Farmers suffered reduced crop yields as a result of the dry summer. For farmers without robust irrigation systems, the results were sometimes devastating.

The year in sports

Massachusetts often finds itself at the epicenter of the sports world, and 2016 was no exception.

Legendary Red Sox slugger David Ortiz called it a career after the 2016 season. After helping his team break its playoff curse in 2004, Ortiz was a crucial cog in two more World Series-winning campaigns, forever endearing himself to the Fenway faithful.

Down in Foxboro, meanwhile, the “Deflategate” saga continued to drag on, more than a full year after allegations first surfaced that the New England Patriots played with footballs inflated below the minimum PSI. The 2016 NFL season began without Tom Brady, as a federal court reinstated the NFL’s decision to suspend the star quarterback for four games.

Massachusetts was well-represented in the Rio Olympics in 2016, with five Bay Staters taking home medals. Gymnast Aly Raisman of Needham won team gold and two individual silver medals. In judo, Danvers resident Kayla Harrison won gold and Travis Stevens of Wakefield won silver in their respective divisions. Diver Michael Hixon of Amherst got silver in springboard diving, while Gevvie Stone of Cambridge took home the silver in women’s single sculls rowing.

Distance runner Abbey D’Agostino of Topsfield didn’t medal at Rio, but her display of sportsmanship appeared on countless highlight reels. After another runner tripped and fell during the 5,000 meters, taking D’Agostino down with her, the Topsfield runner got up and pulled her tearful competitor to her feet. The two athletes shared an embrace after finishing the race. The moment was widely hailed as the embodiment of the Olympic spirit.